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Sermon from today 6.10.13Free to be a Slave. Lord, let your Spirit reside over us this morning as we
reflect on your word, may we absorb your truth afresh and rise refreshed as the
morning dew. Amen. I wrote this sermon amidst the backdrop of the horrendous
atrocity that occurred in Kenya. That a
human can shoot another just because they do not know the words of a prayer
defies understanding. It challenges our
call to forgiveness. How can we forgive
such evil? The first reading today which we heard from, suitably
called Lamentations, was initially thought to have been written by Jeremiah,
but is now considered to have been written in the years after the destruction
of the temple in 587BC by Nebuchadnezzar.
It is likely that a lot of energy and thought had been put into the
meaning of the disaster – why did this happen to us? I am sure we can all resonate with this at
one time or another. Certainly the
picture that the author paints for us is bleak to say the least. The picture is…

Today I was at South Green Methodist Church preaching as part of my on trial status and as part of the preaching plan for the North Kent Methodist Circuit. Despite there being only 4 people in the congregation, an organist and myself we made a good noise and one of the congregation - an ex local preacher made the comment that " that was proper worship" at the end of the service.

It remains a thorny issue of how to support these very small rural chapels that are part of the historic fabric of our culture, and are so obviously so passionately supported by the people who do attend them. In essence they are small groups, though rather expensive ones.

Perhaps in the end it is the community and companionship between the people that is important rather than the chapel or the church.